Joe Marler has pointed to how England won “ugly” at the 2003 World Cup, in defence of the current side’s style of play amid fierce criticism despite back-to-back victories in France.
Steve Borthwick’s side clinched a bonus-point victory against Japan on Sunday to move to the verge of the quarter-finals but were booed by their own supporters for their route‑one gameplan in Nice.
England kicked the ball 42 times in the match for a combined distance of more than a kilometre and though it proved an effective tactic – Japan struggled to deal with Alex Mitchell’s box-kicking and George Ford’s up‑and‑unders – supporters who had shelled out hundreds if not thousands of pounds to watch their side made their frustrations clear.
The former France flanker Olivier Magne was damning in his verdict, writing on social media: “This English team is ugly – no desire, no joy, no consistency. It’s a repulsive rugby.”
Indeed it was telling that the 36,000‑seat stadium in Nice was not sold out and, though England sealed the bonus point with late tries from Freddie Steward and Joe Marchant, there was more than a slice of fortune to their two earlier scores, through Lewis Ludlam and Courtney Lawes.
Marler, however, insisted stylistic points count for little at World Cup tournaments. Recalling the 2003 side that clinched the title in Sydney, as well as the South Africa team who beat England in the 2019 final, he issued a staunch defence of the approach at this tournament.
The loosehead prop said: “Why do you have to finesse it? You’ve just got to win, haven’t you? What did England do 20 years ago? Find a way to win in the World Cup. We’ll keep trying and taking the lessons from each game. We’ll take the lessons and we’ll keep trying to finesse. Ultimately it’s about the win.
“You talk about style of play, a lot of people do. [The 2003 team] went a couple of phases, Jonny [Wilkinson] slotted some penalties and some drop goals. They won ugly, a lot of that tournament they won ugly but we don’t talk about that now do we? We talk about them winning the World Cup. You forget about how [they] did it. You don’t talk about South Africa getting pumped in the first game against New Zealand, you talk about them pumping us in the final and then lifting the trophy.
“We will continue to work on our game to improve and make sure we’ve got a better chance of winning those games.”
Ford was similarly defiant over England’s approach and pointed to the humid conditions, which made for a slippery ball, as a reason to stick to the route-one gameplan. It should also be said that England opened up in the second half and played with greater ambition, particularly when Marcus Smith was introduced for another eye-catching cameo at full-back.
“We’re here to win games, aren’t we? That’s our job,” Ford said. “We’re here to win Test matches. We want to make every fan and every English fan proud. We understand the sacrifice and commitment they make to come and support us and we value that so highly. But we want to be a winning team and we want [supporters] to be proud of a winning team as well.
“That would be my message to them – we’re going to put everything into these games to win and make them proud.
“We’re probably going to look back and there are some decisions … should we have kept in hand? Should we have kicked it? Why did we kick it there? There are also a handful of things like that. We scored four tries in the end, it was a tough game, Japan caused us many problems and we’re two from two so we want to build momentum.”
